


Subterfuge

by Glorious_Monday



Category: Mobsterswitch - Fandom, Problem Sleuth (Webcomic)
Genre: I Tried, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7297801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glorious_Monday/pseuds/Glorious_Monday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Detective is trapped in the hands of the Innovator for reasons unclear. Surely the Company will help him in the end, right?</p><p>(Takes place during the comic Apocryphal Antithesis by Selan Pike)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Subterfuge

You're name is Deadeye Detective and you're head felt like a metal hammer was hitting it repeatedly. You can feel something in your making loose strands stick to the back of your neck. With your eyes still and your hands and ankles tied, you smirk as the familiar scent of tea hits your nostrils.

"Innovator..", You say quietly, your own voice seeming to bounce around in your skull. The urge to throw up slowly rises. "You didn't have to be so rough."

Nothing answers you but silence. Did he really leave you alone by yourself? No, that can't be it. You can hear the soft sounds of heavy breaths close by.

You slowly open your eyes, wincing slightly at the soft light coming from the cracks of a closed curtain across the room. You blink a few times to readjust your vision but nothing seems to clear the foggy edges away.

What looks like the Innovator stands about a foot in front of you, a book clutched in his slightly shaking hands and a confused look etched on his face.

"W-What..what do you remember?", He asks you slowly and you narrow your eyes in concentration.

"Scofflaw was beating up DPI. You were screaming. Ink Scofflaw was messing with the boss and I ran up to it to try to get it to go away and..I don't remember anything after that.", You say slowly, your speech slurring slightly as the memories start flowing back into your aching head.

Innovator stays quiet, his hands cease to shake as he lets out a quiet sigh that almost goes unnoticed.

"What happened? Is the Company ok?", You ask hazily.

"The Company.", He mumbles and pauses. "They're doing good. We defeated Scofflaw."

He scratches the back of his neck and avoids your gaze but your head hurts to much and that rushing relief of momentary suspense being cleared away keeps you from inquiring it.

They're alive. The world was saved afterall.

"So, why am I here?", You ask.

"I…I needed some company and plus you're an important asset to your team. You missing will surely bring the Company down.", He says and your eyes widen slightly in surprise at these unexpected reasonings.

"I didn't take you as shallow.", You say with a smirk. "No matter. If there's a low chance that I won't find a way to escape then Scout and the others will pay a visit."

Innovator looks down and says nothing.

"By the way..Where are we?", You ask as you notice the unfamiliarity of your current surroundings. You were in a dimly lit room, the only furnishing being the uncomfortable engraved wooden chair you were tied to and a small wooden table that had a tea pot on top. 

"It would be quite distracting to have you in my office so I just put you in one of the spare rooms.", Innovator says as he picks a piece of fuzz off of his sleeve.

He looks down at the watch on his wrist and jumps slightly in surprise.

"I need to go.", He says quickly, a hint of panic in his voice. "I'm going to put this around your mouth so you don't make any noise ok?", Innovator says as he ties a piece of cloth around your mouth before you can protest.

"Please..Please don't do anything stupid while I'm gone.", He says seriously.

"Like what?", You try to ask but only muffled noises come out due to the cursed gag.

He sighs and looks at you for a moment, unshed tears gleaming in his eyes that could only be seen at a certain angle before he turns away and exits the room, an audible click of a lock being heard.

What the heck was going on? Why was the Innovator acting that way?

You didn't know and your main priority was to get the hell out of there.

You look around the room was more and your eyes land on the abandoned teapot. You could knock it over and get one of the shards to cut off the rope but the table was on the other side of the room. You curse quietly through the gag. It seems as if you were going to have to wait for the rest of the Company afterall.

You sigh as you bend your head back so your neck hits the hard top of the chair. You close your eyes and try to concentrate on blocking out the pain but it stays put, nausea accompanying it.

Your groan as you feel the threat of vomit. You really didn't need to ruin your suit more.

After what feels like an hour of clenching your eyes shut taking shallow breaths, you fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

"Detective, wake up.", You hear a hushed voice say as they tap on your shoulder.

You groan as you open your eyes again, your head still pounding and your neck sore from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position.

"How long've I been sleeping?", You ask, wincing at your slurred speech.

"About twelve hours.", He says as he puts a hand on your shoulder.

Twelve hours? Where was the Company at?

"Does your head still hurt?", Innovator asks and you nod, immediately regretting it afterwards.

"I'm going to bandage your wound, so please stay still.", He says and you do or say nothing. 

He takes a small clean cloth, putting a few drops of what looked like peroxide on it and he dabs the area of your head that hurts the most, pushing back your hair to get to some parts.

You bite down on the inside of your cheek to avoid letting out a noise from the pain. What happened to your head? You think about asking Innovator but you don't want to cause more pain through speaking so you keep your mouth shut.

After a while of soft apologies as Innovator dabs at the wounds he pulls out some gauze and wraps them around your head.

Innovator sighs as he takes a step back and sets the gauze on the table next to the pot of tea that still sat there innocently.

He looks at you with those same sad eyes, except this time he forces a small smile on his face and brushes a few strands of your hair to the side.

"You look awful.", He says and you can feel a smirk playing on your lips too besides the sinking feeling that your appearance was not doing so great.

"Thanks for reminding me.", You mumble.

"I got you some soup.", Innovator says as he picks up a small container of soup next to the teapot on the table.

"Thanks, but how am I supposed to eat it?", You ask with the small anticipation of getting your hands untied. Innovator rolls his eyes.

"I'm not stupid enough to untie you, even if your not in a good condition. I'll just feed it to you.", He says and you look at him in confusion. You open your mouth to argue but Innovator rolls his eyes.

"Unless you don't want any?", He says and you shut your mouth. As much as you don't care to be fed by one of your enemies that is holding you hostage, you felt quite hungry.

You sigh and allow the man to spoon feed you chicken noodle soup. No words are exchanged as you great fully eat the soup.

"You really are hungry..should have brought more.", Innovator mutters as he notices how fast you're eating the soup. You look away from him after that but still keep excepting the spoonfuls of soup he gives you nonetheless.

After every last drop of soup is gone from the bowl you quickly regret eating it, the nausea catching up as the soup sits in your stomach.

Innovator seems to notice and looks at you with slight concern.

"What's wrong?", He asks.

You answer him by throwing up all-over his shoes.

* * *

The next day turns out to follow the same schedule.

Innovator wakes you up softly, this time giving you some pain meds and nausea control. You take them hesitantly. Sure, he didn't poison the soup but you never should trust anything your enemies try to put in your mouth.

"I brought more food this time. You must be starving.", He says quietly. You say nothing back, not caring to admit that you were actually starving.

After you force down some more soup and a grilled cheese with the Innovator's help, he checks your wounds, the medicine keeping your food down and the pain away.

"They should get better. I don't think your brain was damaged too much..", He says mostly to himself and you quirk an eyebrow.

"What happened?", You ask.

"Pardon?"

"My head, what happened?", You ask.

"Scofflaw took the book and beat you against the head with it. He just kept going and going, even after you knocked out.", Innovator says softly. 

"Oh.", You say. This sounds about right.

"I'm sorry.", Innovator says and you tilt your head to the side in confusion.

"Sorry about what?", You ask confused.

"I was so caught up in what was happening to me that I failed to notice the people in my surroundings. I let you down." He chokes out. A lone tear falls from his eye and more slowly follow.

"Hey, stop that. As long as Scofflaw is dead then I don't care. It's just a wound, it'll heal.", You say but this seems to make it worse. He starts trembling, choked sounds that sound like restrained sobbing escaping from his lips. And just like that he teleports away, leaving you to wonder what just happened.

* * *

The only times he lets you out of the room is when he takes you to the bathroom. He puts a blindfold over your eyes and a gag in your mouth and takes a hold of your hand, directing you to the bathroom. Your hands are tied behind your back still so there isn't much you can do.

Your head slowly gets better, the pounding reducing to a mere headache. You can even eat food without having to take that nausea medicine.

There's still no sign of the Company coming to get you which surprises you. At nights when you're left alone you usually look at the door an conjure up rescue scenarios inside of your head.

You imagine Scout kicking the door down, maybe saying some stupid pun, maybe even showing some signs of relief as he sees you alive and fairly well. Demo would probably shout out your name in excitement as he jumps off from Brawler's shoulders.

You have a sinking feeling deep in your gut that none of that is going to happen. If you want to get out of here then you're going to have to get out of here yourself.

Innovator only visits for about two hours a day, bringing some food with him each time. He doesn't bring three meals worth of food.

"I'm sorry. I can't bring more.", He says sometimes. You ask him why and he doesn't give a straight answer. He never really gives you a straight answer to all your questions. It irritates you. You want answers and you want to get out of here.

"Innovator..why am I really here?", You ask. It was eight days after your first awakening. You've been counting the days through the little light you can see through the cracks of the curtains that are always closed.

"I already told you that answer Detective.", He says after a pause and you shake your head.

"You said you're lonely and that without me the Company would collapse.", You recall.

"It seems as if you answered your own question."

"We both know that that isn't true though don't we?", You ask. 

"Detective, do you see your little Company rushing in to save you? No. They can't even accomplish a simple rescue mission without you.", Innovator says through clenched teeth. He looks down at then watch on his wrist and sighs. "I got to go."

He teleports out of the room, leaving you with nothing but questions.

* * *

After twenty days Innovator seems to notice that this whole setup of his wasn't working so well.

The skin on your wrists were raw and each time he tied them back up after you went to the bathroom it just got worse. Soon all the skin seemed to peel off, just leaving tender flesh that burned at the contact. 

You were losing a lot of weight too. The old suit that you wore on your first day here was stained at the end from the blood on your wrists and it hanged on you, the fabric to big for your skinny form.

On one of your bathroom trips you felt dizzy and tripped over air, Innovator gasping in surprise and catching you before you hit the floor.

When you opened your eyes you could feel the pain in your stomach starting up again and the feeling of your raw wrists tied back behind the the back of that damned chair.

"I'm sorry, I should have tried to bring more, but they'd notice.", Innovator says when he sees your open eyes. He's holding a small box of raw foods.

You think about saying a remark at how low quality the food was but you stay quiet. You're quite surprised that he was even feeding you at all to be honest.

After twenty minutes of eating all the granola bars and dry cereal you can eat you throw up, Innovator jumping back in surprise.

"O-Oh god, I can't do anything right.", Innovator says to himself as he drops the spoon on his hand.

Before you can say anything he teleports out of the room again.

* * *

The next day the two of you go through the same routine again except this time he actually stays after he's fed you.

He sighs and sits down on the dusty carpeted floor across from you.

"How are they?", You ask after a moment of silence. His breath hitches but he quickly regains control of his breathing.

"They're doing fine. Still blithering idiots as usual.", He says as he scratches the back of his neck.

You should feel relieved at this but something gnawing inside of you tells you that something was up. You knew they were idiots but you also knew that they weren't incompetent enough to not break you out of here by now. Something must be up.

"Do you know what they're up to?", You ask casually.

"I imagine that they're attempting to find the building that we are in and are obviously failing at doing so.", The Innovator says as he looks at the teapot in the corner of the room.

"So.. They're all ok?", You ask. The Innovator stays silent for a minute, looking at you for a minute and then at the ground.

"Yeah they're fine. If you count how they always are fine.", He says. "Now stop asking questions about them."

You open your mouth to ask another question about the Company but you close your mouth and stay silent. You didn't want to make the guy teleport out of here. The solitude of the room was really getting to you. You usually enjoyed solitude and some alone time but so much of it was something foreign to you lately. The Company was usually around to keep you from getting used to being alone all the time. 

"Ok. That teapot, what is it doing here?", You ask as you motion to the teapot.

"Oh that…That's just for decoration.", Innovator says slowly. "Doesn't it look nice?"

"It's interesting.", You say.

There's a tense silence between you two. You replay the events that played yesterday in your head idly as you avoid the look that the Innovator is giving you. And then something clicks.

"You didn't tell your teammates that I'm here.", You say and Innovator's eyes widen in surprise and he looks at you with confusion.

"How-"

"You said that you couldn't take a lot of food without them noticing. You're hiding me here, but why?", You ask.

"I..I didn't want the others to hurt you or anything you know. Just wanted company and to destroy your team.", He says as he avoids your gaze. Something wasn't right here.

"Why don't you have your girlfriend or one of your other teammates keep you company and just kill me? It would have been a much easier route.", You say nonchalantly like you didn't just offer your enemy a plan to kill you with no consequences.

"I..I know what I'm doing Detective. I have no intention in hurting you.", He says. "I'm doing this all for a reason."

You think about asking his reason for this but you stay silent. Maybe some things are better left unsaid.

"So, I'm staying here forever, huh? Or at least until you get bored of me.", You say and the Innovator nods.

"It would be very difficult to get bored of you though Detective.", He says with a smile and you roll your eyes and look away before you feel the urge to smile back. Stockholm syndrome just isn't your thing.

* * *

Time passes on slowly in that room and you hate it.

You attempted to escape during bathroom trips against your better judgement but this just makes Innovator tie your feet together and carry you to the bathroom during bathroom trips from now on much to your embarrassment.

"That one there. Move it to the left.", You say one day as you nod your head towards a piece on the chess board.

"Which one? This one?", Innovator asks as his hand hovers over one of your pieces that you clearly weren't referring to.

"No, the one next to it.", You say and his hand goes over to the piece right to the wrong piece when you wanted him to move the piece to the left on the wrong piece.

You feel the urge to face palm and move your hand to do so, clearly forgetting that your hands are tied and successfully hurting your wrists even more.

You wince and Innovator quickly stands up from his place on the floor.

"What's wrong? Is it your head again?", He asks and you shake your head.

"No, I'm fine. Sit back down and find that piece.", You say through gritted teeth.

"Oh, it's your wrists again isn't it? I'm sorry, I just can't have you trying to leave.", He says as he walks over to behind the chair you sit on where your hands are tied. You hear him wince at the sight of the rope digging into your flesh but he says nothing.

"It's fine. It doesn't hurt.", You lie and he rolls his eyes.

"Sure it doesn't.", He says sarcastically. "Stay here, I'll go get some bandages. Don't need you dying over something so little now do we?"

"Not like I have anywhere else to go.", You say bitterly. He just smiles and teleports out of the room.

You sit there for a while, looking at the chess board and strategizing different possible moves that could result in your favor until what feels like an hour passes.

That hour slowly turns into two and then three.

You narrow your eyes and sigh as you throw your head back. He probably wasn't coming back today. At least he forgot to put that horrid gag back in your mouth this time.

After twenty minutes of trying to scoot your chair by the teapot to smash it you realize that your chair is glued to the floor.

"Great.", You mumble bitterly as you look at your familiar surroundings. There's nothing more you would like to do than lay down with a nice pillow and go to sleep. But you couldn't, because you were stuck to what felt like the most uncomfortable chair in the world.

After an hour of trying to go to sleep you manage to fall into a restless slumber.

* * *

The next day you woke up by yourself, groaning as you felt the soreness of your neck due to the yet another night of uncomfortable sleep on the chair.

You waited for a while for the Innovator to come back.

You continued on making little scenarios in your head of your escape or rescue. All of which you somehow know are probably not going to happen.

What if you died here? What if you died on this chair and the Company looked and looked and all they found in the end was a dead body? No, that couldn't happen. Who was going to stop Scout from doing things that were too stupid? Who was going to reluctantly make Demo pancakes in the morning with a ridiculous amount of chocolate chips in them? Who was going to stop Brawler from running into a wall, thinking he can break it down?

The Company needed you and you needed them.

So you were going to stay alive no matter what and get out of here. You were going to be with them again and fight crime.

With this new mindset you tried different ways of trying to escape that you hadn't tried before.

You attempted to get your hands and ankles out of the rope for probably what was the hundredth time. When all you managed to do was make your wrists even more bloodier you attempted to uproot the chair from the floor. When all this did was make your legs sore you decided to take a break.

You sighed at your failed attempts, trying to think of a way to get your hands free from the rope so you can set your ankles free. Then you hear footsteps.

You look up at the door, planning on asking what took the Innovator so long before your ears catch the noise of another voice behind the door.

"Innovator, what's behind that door?", A familiar voice asks but you can't quite put your tongue on whose voice it belonged to.

"N-Nothing. Nothing at all.", You hear the Innovator say. He sounds panicked.

"Oh really?", You hear the voice say amusedly. "So if I open this door, I'll find nothing? Nothing at all?"

"Yes.", Innovator says desperately.

"Then you won't mind if I open it.", You hear the voice say. You feel your heart beat quicken as the door slowly opens and reveals someone you thought you would never see again.

The man before you seems almost as surprised to see you as your surprised to see him. He looks enraged for a second as it sinks in who you are.

"What the hell is he doing here Innovator? You said that he was dead!", Scofflaw yells and Innovator slowly walks into the room. His eyes meet yours and he looks horrified. 

"I-I..I j-just thought..", Innovator chokes out. It looks like he wants to cry.

"I should be asking what you're doing here. Innovator, you told me he was dead.", You say and Scofflaw looks incredulous.

"You said that?", He looks at Innovator and Innovator nods. "Well look here pretty boy.", He says as he turns to you and walks closer to where you sit. "I'm very much alive. In fact, I'm a god."

"No..You defeated DPI?", You ask already knowing the answer. A sinking feeling erupts in your stomach as Scofflaw smiles and nods.

He doesn't look very inky anymore. He's no longer a hologram. He's very much real and he's very much not dead.

"What about the Company?", You ask.

"Oh, Innovator didn't tell you?", He asks and you shake your head. "Then let me tell you a little story."

"N-No, leave him be. He doesn't need to know.", Innovator says and Scofflaw glares at him.

"Inny, shut your mouth. I don't think I can even trust you anymore, keeping all these secrets from me. After all I've done for you too.", Scofflaw says with a small hint of sadness buried in a mountain of anger.

Innovator stays silent, looking at you with pleading eyes that beg you to forgive him. Your heart hammers in your chest as Scofflaw looks back at you and smiles.

"I'm sure you remember what happened at the beginning but just in case I'll recap you. I was messing around with Scout, singing a little tune to him that I'm sure he remembered when you decided to butt in try to get me away from him. I took the book and hammered away at your head with it. Scofflaw tried stabbing me with that pathetic little knife of his to get me to stop but that didn't do a thing.", Scofflaw says and you stay quiet, holding your breath without even realizing it as you wait for him to continue.

"Innovator took your pulse, told me you were dead and Scout and the others went hysterical. That stupid short one was bawling and Scout and that big lug were trying to fight with me. Those idiots.", He says as he smiles widely. "I took my hand, put it up to the little one's mouth and shot ink through his body so fast that it came out of his eyes and and ears. He was the first to drop dead."

You feel your hands clenching into fists behind your back, your head feels like it's spinning and you feel like you're about to throw up. This can't be happening.

"Oh, you should have seen the look on Brawl's face. He yelled and came charging at me and I threw him into the ocean. Scout went on trying to stab me, the stupid guy. I had no trouble in shoving my hand into his other eye and-"

"Stop.", You say. You're shaking.

"Oh? Does it bother you that I killed all of the people who matter to you?", He says with that awful smirk. "Well except Innovator of course but I don't think you very much care for him now that I told you the truth."

The Innovator looks at you with sorry eyes that you can't look at for too long. There's so many different things going inside your head right now that your body seems to forget to breathe.

"I didn't want to hurt you.", Innovator says. You don't know how to respond back. Oh god, you can't breathe. This is not you. Deadeye Detective is not supposed to be crying and choking on air. Deadeye Detective should be back with the Company, celebrating the end of Scofflaw. Stopping whatever the Twilight Scoundrel schemes up to next.

But the Company is gone. And as Scofflaw raises the gun in his hand and presses it against your forehead you realize that you're next.

**Author's Note:**

> This is no excuse but I made this late at night when I wad tired and bored, haha. Might continue this, I don't know. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
